This invention relates to guitars and similar stringed musical instruments and deals more particularly with a bridge and tailpiece device for use with such a guitar and operable by the player of the instrument to increase and decrease the tension applied to one end of the strings to create a tremolo effect.
Various different tremolo devices have been proposed in the past and have been used to create a tremolo effect in the sound produced by a guitar or similar stringed musical instrument. In a common form of such device the tailpiece or string anchor to which the lower ends of the strings are attached is somehow slid back and forth relative to the instrument body, or otherwise moved, by the player through the use of a lever (tremolo arm) located near the playing area to alternately increase and decrease the string tension. That is, the lower ends of the strings are actually moved back and forth from their neutral position to alternately slightly stretch and relax them.
Since the bridge of an instrument is normally located a short distance ahead of the tailpiece in the direction of the neck, the movement of the lower end of the strings requires, if the bridge is stationary, that the individual strings move or at least be urged to move over the associated bridge saddle or saddles. If the string involved is a wound string the movement of convolutions of the wrap wire over the associated saddle causes a string noise; and, regardless of the type of string construction, the friction between the string and the bridge resists the desired relative motion. This could result in the tension of any one string between the tailpiece and the bridge becoming different from its tension between the bridge and the nut, in turn causing tuning problems.
Also, the production of a tremolo effect is usually required only at infrequent intervals and when it is not required the presence of the tremolo arm may be a hinderance to the player so that it is desirable that the tremolo arm be movable to an out of the way position when the tremolo effect is not desired, and this is sometimes not possible with prior art constructions.
The general object of the invention is therefore to provide a tremolo bridge and tailpiece device which is improved over such devices previously proposed by the prior art.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide such a tremolo tailpiece and bridge device wherein the tendency of the strings to be moved relative to the bridge is eliminated thereby eliminating the production of associated string noises and undesirable tuning problems arising from the friction between the strings and the bridge resisting relative string to bridge motion.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tremolo tailpiece and bridge device of the foregoing character wherein the tremolo effect is achieved without changing the position of the string relative to the bridge.
A further object of the invention is to provide a tremolo tailpiece and bridge device which may be designed for mounting to a guitar or similar stringed instrument in various different ways as by partially recessing it into the body of a solid body guitar or surface mounting it to the top surface of a guitar or incorporating it into a trapeze mechanism attached to the very lower end of a guitar.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a tremolo tailpiece and bridge device as described above wherein the tremolo arm is movable to an out of the way position when not in use and wherein the tremolo arm may be disassembled from the remainder of the device.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the drawings and from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.